The present invention relates to a waterbed headboard bracket, and in particular, to a waterbed headboard bracket which allows vertical and horizontal adjustment of the headboard.
It is a common practice in assembling a bed to include a headboard as a supporting part of the frame. The frame generally consists of a pair of side rails, a footboard and a headboard. The footboard and headboard rest on the floor providing support for the entire frame.
An arrangement for connecting a headboard to a bed frame is shown in Hoit, U.S. Pat. No. 1,270,414, where the bed frame is supported by legs at each corner and the headboard is bolted flush to the frame. The headboard does not provide support for the frame and, in fact, the headboard is supported by the frame.
Most modern bed headboards are located a short distance from the edge of the mattress to provide room to tuck the bed sheets in under the mattress and to keep a sleeper's head away from the hard surface of a headboard.
A bed frame which supports a box spring and mattress where the headboard is supported by the frame has come to be known as a Hollywood bed. The frame for this type of bed has been constructed of steel angles or tubing joined to form a mattress support. The frame is supported on legs and has brackets to support a headboard. The brackets are welded to the frame along the end identified as the headboard end. There is little or no adjustment of the headboard in either the vertical or horizontal direction, since the bracket is fixed and provides no adjustment for a headboard. U.S. Pat. No. 3,249,953, issued to Liskin discloses a bed frame showing a headboard bracket mounted on the frame to support a headboard above the floor. The headboard bracket is in the form of an angle welded to one leg of the frame. The bracket has slots to receive bolts from a headboard. The slots provide horizontal adjustment of the headboard in relation to the bed frame.
With the advent of waterbeds, a new type of frame structure was developed to support a water-filled mattress. Generally, the most commonly used structure includes a platform or pedestal which raises the height of the mattress to the level of a conventional bed. The pedestal may be of any structural design, usually commercial pedestals are somewhat less in dimension than the mattress and the supporting frame. The waterbed frame, therefore, may extend beyond the pedestal as much as a foot on all four sides. The waterbed frame includes a decking board, which rests on the pedestal, and an upstanding frame structure that includes rails. A waterbed mattress is supported on the decking board within the frame. The pedestal and frame combination provides a basic unit which can be used for comtemporary or traditional decor. With the pedestal being smaller dimension than the frame, a headboard and footboard of any decor can be used, since the pedestal can be hidden by bed covers in the case of a traditional decor or used as a part of the decor in a contemporary decor.
While the basic unit of a pedestal and waterbed frame is versatile in that it can be used with several decors, there is a problem in mounting a headboard on the frame where the headboard does not rest on the floor. Also there is another problem of aligning the headboard in relation to the frame, whether or not it rests on the floor or is supported by the frame. In addition, it has been learned through experience that the headboard should have an adequate clearance from the frame in order to work with a water-filled mattress, either to make the bed or to install the mattress on the frame.
The alignment of a headboard in relation to the frame sometimes requires a trail and error process to compensate for misalignment. This can be minimized if the bracket is constucted to provide both horizontal and vertical adjustment simultaneously. Not only should the headboard move in a horizontal and vertical direction, it should move in on the diagonal which would eliminate moving first in the horizontal or vertical direction and then the other. The bracket of the present invention provides horizontal, vertical or diagonal movement, either separately or simultaneously.
The prior headboard brackets do not allow for easy installation of the headboard on the frame. Therefore, installation requires either special tools or several time consuming steps. The bracket of this invention makes it easy for a person to install a headboard without the use of special tools, or a number of steps. This is because the bracket spaces the headboard an adequate distance from the frame which allows easy installation of fasteners and access for tightening tools. With the headboard spaced from the frame, there is no problem in working with the waterbed mattress as in prior bed frame constructions.
The present invention is constructed to support a headboard and allow simple adjustment both vertically and horizontally.